Of Cats & Candy Corn
by thatbritishsmile
Summary: Their cats were sleeping next to each other, and the two lovebirds were eating some of the chocolate's they'd kept for themselves while they watched horror movies. Maybe it wasn't an extravagant date night, but it was enough for the two of them. Human AU. Domestic fluff


"Come now Crumpet, it's not that bad," Arthur cooed for the fifth time that minute in hopes of being able to squeeze his cat into the little angel costume he'd picked out for this Halloween, groaning as she slipped away to hide under the bed. Getting down on his hands and knees, Arthur reached under the bed to try to coax her out. "I swear- Crumpet, please, if you don't come out soon we won't be ready in time." Yet his actions were to no avail as the usual tender cat made a move to scratch the hand reaching for her. Deciding to put aside his dignity, Arthur got up and walked to the kitchen; returning shortly with a bag of cat nip. "Bribing your pet with drugs," he muttered to himself, "look how low you've fallen." Though as he said it he opened the bag, keeping a watchful eye on the edge of the bed for Crumpet to sneak back out, and gave a sigh of relief as she did a minute or two later.

"Yes that's right, I'm bribing you. How does that make you feel," Arthur said to her, scooping Crumpet up into his arms and going back to sit on the bed. He gave her some catnip and managed to get her to cooperate long enough for him to get the costume on, letting out an "awww" of affection as he took a step back to look her over. "You look absolutely precious, Crumpet. I'm sure you'll break Hero's heart when he sees you!" Crumpet didn't respond, obviously, because she was a cat, but it didn't bother Arthur as he softly patted the cat between her ears before going back to preparing for tonight.

Once in the kitchen, he finish preparing the dinner he'd been working for a while now before placing it in the oven in order for it to cook. In the meantime, he finished a few other things before tiredly flopping on his sofa- it was only 2:00 p.m. so he still had a few hours before Alfred would arrive, let alone any kids that would come knocking on his door for candy. Slowly, he closed his eyes, body relaxing for the first time all day as he had_ finally_ finished all the preparations. Before he knew it he'd fallen asleep, and by the time he woke up, it was already a bit dark. The soft murmurs coming from the TV told him that Alfred had arrived and was probably somewhere around the house. Yawning, he slowly started to sit up, stretching his arms out in front of him and cracking a few joints. Not long after that, a ball of white fur with a grey-ish black ring jumped into his lap, rubbing himself all over Arthur's stomach.

"Hello Hero, it's nice to see you too," Arthur greeted the cat with a soft chuckle, one of his hands immediately going for the one spot he knew the cat adored being scratched at. Unlike Crumpet, the cat on his lap was very energetic all the time. He liked it when people played with him and he loved anyone who discovered that he loved being pet right under his chin. "Hey Hero, you know the rules- Artie is mine," the familiar voice of Arthur's boyfriend called out from just inside the kitchen, to which the cat ignored and instead chose to snuggle closer to Arthur's stomach. Alfred came out into the living room, his eyes landing on his cat and frowning as he noticed that Hero hadn't listened to him.

"I swear that cat loves you as much as I do," Alfred mused, his eyes moving up to meet Arthur's, a bright grin already in place to which Arthur returned with a smile of his own, motioning for the other to sit beside him.

"Hello love," Arthur greeted him, leaning in to give Alfred a peck on the lips.

"That greeting was due two hours ago, but I'm not complaining. Especially since I got to add more 'sleeping Arthur' pictures to my collection," Alfred teased while going through the photo album on his phone.

Arthur only rolled his eyes and continued petting Hero. At the beginning of their relationship it had bothered him a little that Alfred was so obsessed with taking pictures of him, but by now he was used to it, and in return he would take embarrassing pictures of Alfred whenever he could. It was a kind of insurance, so that those photos Alfred took never to fell in the hands of anyone that could blackmail him. (Aka, his brothers and friends.)

"So I noticed Hero isn't ready yet," Arthur said after a few minutes, to which Alfred shrugged and reached over to pet the cat's head.

"He was giving me trouble so I decided to wait until the right time. I saw Crumpet though, she looks absolutely adorable."

At the mention of the female cat, Hero looked up and it didn't take long before he was off Arthur's lap and walking away to look for Crumpet. Arthur and Alfred chuckled at the sight, used to the cats always looking for each other when together. The familiar weight of Alfred's arm brought Arthur's attention back to him and he turned his head in the other's direction. Alfred smiled down at him and leaned in to place a soft kiss on the top of his head. "Ready for tonight, then?"

To that, Arthur nodded and smiled, it was rare for them to have a date night lately, with their schedules and what not, so they were both thrilled to have this opportunity even if it was halloween and would have probably a lot of interruptions. It didn't matter in the end, it still gave them the opportunity to be together, even just for a few hours. "I'm afraid I have to get back to cooking now. I trust you took out what was inside the oven?" Arthur questioned, to which Alfred responded with a nod and one of his famous grins.

"Of course I took it out, I wouldn't want dinner burnt again!" Alfred joked, quickly scooting away from his now angry boyfriend who had every intention of hitting him for bringing that up. There was one time he'd accidentally burnt the food! Then again it had been his stupid neighbour's fault. If Arthur knew anything, it was how to bake. "Have fun preparing the rest of dinner, babe. I'm gonna go try to put Hero's outfit on him!" Alfred said, and with that, he was gone; leaving Arthur to angrily prepare the ingredients for the side salad. (And maybe wish along the way that Hero would scratch his boyfriend.)

"Ouch, Hero! Stop it!"

At the sounds of pain coming from Alfred, Arthur had to laugh; he hadn't expected Hero to actually scratch Alfred. A few minutes later, a slightly gloomy Hero padded into the kitchen, tail held high in indignation as a black cape flowed softly around him, a little red tail coiled around his own white one.

"Oh Hero! You look very scary, yes," Arthur commented, giving the most sympathetic smile he could muster to the cat, although all he wanted to do was laugh at the expression Hero had because of the things Alfred had put him in. If Hero hated anything, it was to be dressed up and both Alfred and Arthur knew it. There were many times they'd had to team up to put things on him (and the occasional bath day).

"He's very angry so I doubt he'll pay you much attention," Alfred said few seconds after Hero had entered the kitchen, walking in as well. He ignored the sulking cat and went for the sink in order to wash the scratch left by said sulker. "I don't know how you and Crumpet's do it. I mean, she doesn't cause you so much trouble!"

Arthur only hummed at the comment, his mind briefly going back to how he'd bribed her with cat nip into coming out of her hiding spot. What Alfred didn't know didn't hurt him, after all; no one needed to know his trade secrets.

Soon it came to be 6 p.m. and kids started to show up at Arthur's doorstep, all dressed up in costumes- from superheroes to scary monsters. Hero finally calmed down enough to join Arthur, Alfred and Crumpet at the door to hand out candy. As he took his place, all the attention of the kids that came near their door were on the two cats, even the parents couldn't help but chuckle. Who'd have known people would like the cats' angel and devil costumes so much? By 8:30 p.m. crowds around the neighbourhood had calmed down, and Arthur and Alfred sat near the door, a cup of hot chocolate in each of their hands, the mostly empty bowl of candy next to the door. For the last 20 minutes they'd been talking about work, and had completely forgotten about the usual interruptions until a group of kids came knocking to the door.

After they got up to help the kids and watch as some of them were distracted by the cats, they bid their goodbyes and finally closed the door. "That should be all of them," Alfred announced and turned the outside lights off, a lazy smile adorning his lips as he extended one of his hands to Arthur, which he took and gave a soft squeeze, letting their fingers intertwine as they made their way to the living room. Once there they took to the sofa, Alfred reaching for the remote to turn the channel to one of the many horror movie marathons still going on, while Arthur pulled up his legs and leaned against Alfred's shoulder. Somehow Hero had loosen his cape and had managed to pull it off, while Crumpet was still trying to remove the halo stuck to her head.

The night was still young, however- kids continued to run around outside asking for candy, leaving the two blond men to sit inside their little space. Their cats were sleeping next to each other, and the two lovebirds were eating some of the chocolate's they'd kept for themselves while they watched horror movies. Maybe it wasn't an extravagant date night, but it was enough for the two of them.


End file.
